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VoluMedic 3.0 for LightWave to go GPU-accelerated

VoluMedic has announced an update to its eponymous volumetric rendering plug-in for LightWave.

The software is mainly used in scientific visualisation to render scan and microscopy data, but has also found a niche at VFX houses like Zoic Studios, especially in documentary work and shows like CSI.

VoluMedic 3.0 features a number of features designed to speed up workflow, including new options to manipulate data directly in LightWave’s viewports, including a new GPU-accelerated preview renderer.

The update is free to users of version 2.0 of the software. VoluMedic is currently offering version 2.0 at $2,299, down from the usual price of $2,699, with a free upgrade to version 3.0 when it ships. The shipping date has not yet been annnounced.

PRESS RELEASE (Excerpts)
VoluMedic OG, a leading developer of custom LightWave plugins and 3D graphics software, today announced VoluMedic 3.0: the next generation of the award-winning software for the editing, viewing, rendering and analysis of volume data. VoluMedic 3.0 is a free update for all current users of VoluMedic 2.0!

Among the many improvements in VoluMedic 3.0, is a completely rewritten OpenGL volume renderer that leverages the full power of the GPU for previewing volumetric objects inside LightWave’s Viewports.

“The new GPU-raycaster is able to deliver results that are very close to the final rendering”, said Elmar Moelzer, the product developer of VoluMedic. “Users can now interactively edit the opacity and color textures as well as many other parameters and see the result rendered in realtime at full screen resolution. Several quality levels ensure smooth performance even on somewhat dated graphics hardware.”

New Features in VoluMedic 3.0 include:

GPU-accelerated raycasting in LightWave’s Viewports

New, streamlined user interface

Slice views are now available inside LightWave’s viewports, replacing the Slice Editor panel
The volume data is displayed and resliced according to three relative coordinate systems (dataset, object and world).

Painting, measurement and segmentation of volume data can now be done directly in the LightWave viewports (3D and 2D views).

Tools for automatic, semi-automatic and manual pre-orientation of volume data
This is particularly important if data always has to be aligned the same way for reliable measurement and analysis. Reoriented data is correctly resliced and displayed in realtime in the 2D and 3D Views.

Eight new Shading Quality modes for the software renderer
These do not only look better, but also render much faster than those available in version 2.0. The same Shading Quality levels also affect the new GPU-raycaster, making a manual selection of shaders unnecessary

New requesters for the reduction of dataset and OpenGL texture sizes.
These make very large datasets viewable even on systems with otherwise insufficient memory (at a slightly reduced quality).

Improved support for the interactive ViewPort Renderer (VPR) in LightWave 10 and later

Switch between GPU and CPU rendering at any time!

Faster, multithreaded filters and importers

New compressed VoluMedic format for more efficient storage, as well as faster loading and saving

Improved Analyze and DICOM Importers

Pricing and Availability
VoluMedic 2.0 is now available for a reduced price (with a free upgrade to version 3.0 when it ships).